Jamison becomes a deacon

We were also at this wonderful event

Whoops

I forgot to post the pictures of Sally and Adri making cookies

A stop in Vegas

While we were visiting Mark and Sarah in St. George we ran over quickly to Vegas to see Michelle and her girls, however, while we were in St. George our camera was downstairs and we only took pictures on our cell phone hence on pictures of Megan and Maddie. We had a delightful Halloween with Mark, Sarah, Maddie, Megan and Jane. We went to a neighborhood outside party, made doughnuts and handed out lots of candy.

Arkansas

We tended Isaac, Sadie, & Phebe so here are pictures of them, but the only pictures we took of Silas we took on our Camera and I have not discovered how to take the pictures off and put them on to the computer.

Our fast trips to visit Grandkids

As most of you know we have had several trips to visit kids and grandkids so here are a few pictures we took along the way.

Retry

I am having a hard time with this blog. The trip to Denver was with Rachel not Jenni and I will try again to get the pictures.

More Graduations, Philly, New York

The past few weeks have been filled with great experiences with family: Steve's Graduation, Trip to New York with Jennifer, Trip to Denver with Jenni and Joesph's Graduation so here are a few pictures of these events.

I don't know what happened to the other pictures, I will try again.

I will try again for the pictures. As you can see I included a picture of the Heap Family.

This Week

As I read the e-mail from Shawn I felt a little guilty, because I have not Blogged for about a month, so here I go again. We have had a very busy past week. We attended Rachel's and Sara's graduations, Tristan & Raleigh's Birthday party and completed baptisms and initiatorys for family names at the Bountiful Temple. I will include pictures of the events.

Our law of Sacrifice?

I thought I would send along a blog - just to try my hand at this and to share with each of you some thoughts of the last week.

As Mom and I work at the Temple there is a moment when we are taught some things about the Law of Sacrifice and covenant to keep it. There is a story in the Old Testament which has been going through my mind which pertains to this law for us. It is of King David, after he had made some mistakes with numbering the hosts of Israel. He answers a question of what should it "cost" to keep this law?

“And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the LORD commanded.
“And Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground.
“And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
“And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him: behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood.
“All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king. And Araunah said unto the king, The LORD thy God accept thee.
“And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. (2 Sam. 19-25)

It seems that there are many things to do, to help others, to go to the Temple, to help at the church Cannery, etc., etc., when its not convenient - we are busy doing other things, our day is already planned. We are tempted to say, "I'll help next time, I'll go to the temple next week, I'll do it when it is more convenient."

In the spirit of what David taught, it almost seems that we are often tempted to offer a "sacrifice" of that which costs us nothing. Now, I don't want to suggest that it is always that way with us, but sometimes in our very busy lives, we probably need to look at what we could sacrifice to assist the Lord in His work, knowing that "sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven." (Hymns 27 verse 4)

In our latter day scriptures we are taught, "Verily I say unto you, all among them who know their hearts are honest, and are broken, and their spirits contrite, and are willing to observe their covenants by sacrifice—yea, every sacrifice which I, the Lord, shall command—they are accepted of me.
“ For I, the Lord, will cause them to bring forth as a very fruitful tree which is planted in a goodly land, by a pure stream, that yieldeth much precious fruit. (D&C 97:8-9)

Then the test I think is for us to seek the Spirit and discern His direction so that we observe our covenants by sacrifice and not put off an opportunity when the LOrd has placed a request in our path.

Our family has been blessed by other's sacrifice - one story comes to mind: Mark Anthony Coombs was serving a mission in England and had left his family in Payson. There was a new-born baby in the home and his oldest child was Mark Vernon, both the baby Grace and Vernon were suffering with a severe case of the smallpox. The mother had given up hope that either of them could live and with her mother was planning late one night how to get the children buried after they died. A near-by neighbor was getting ready for bed when the Spirit said to him, "Go and give Sister Coombs a blessing." He mentioned this to his wife and she said, "Wait until morning, she is undoubtedly in bed by now, and also, don't you know they have the smallpox and are quarrantined?"

Brother Potter followed his wife's counsel and continued getting ready for bed when the Spirit said again, "Go give Sister Coombs a blessing." Again he shared this with his wife and they decided to wait until morning. The Spirit said the third time as he was climbing into bed, "Go..." This time he got up and dressed himself and went. The rest is history, as they say and he blessed her and her children. That was the turning point in their suffering.

We usually won't get the three messages, but just one impression, but if that requires a little sacrifice, therein will lie the blessing for us and for someone else.

I love each of you and am grateful for your sacrifices which bring blessings to all of us and to others as well.

Love, Dad

Fishing in frozen Weber River 3/3/07

Dad will write about these Photos.

Mom told you about our fishing trip yesterday - it was about 8 degrees over the night before we got there in the morning. The teacher was determined to make it possible for the class to fish so he got into the river with some others and tried to "walk" the ice out of the channel. It looked to us like a losing proposition since there was a steady stream of ice still comimg down the river above and the temperature was still in the teens - at the most!

So, I said, lets go try fishing under the Rockport dam where the water should be a little warmer since it is coming from under the dam. We did so and found it was agood place - and the day had warmed into the higher teens. After trying for awhile Mom sidled up to another man who was fishing in the same area, who incidently was regularly catching fish, and asked him what he was using. It truned out to be a very small fly (nymph) which we didn't have so he promptly took out of his fly box his last one, put it on her line and told her how to fish that fly. In just a few minutes she had caught two fish and had forgotten how cold it was! Greater love hath no man than to watch his wife catching fish while he has none, and very little prospects of catching any!!!

Needless to say, after the fishing ended, Mom summed up the day with, "That was fun, it was a great day!" And it was! I love your Mom and was really greatful for the other fisherman's help and for your mother's success! As usual, I have to "run" to keep up!

Love, Dad

MoJo's Cafe

Friday night we went out to see Joseph's band perform. It was fun, here are a few pictures.

Whoops, I forgot to mention Jared in the last Post and now that I have this working I will try to send a picture of Our Kitchen.

Grandma

Here are pictures of her.

Fly Fishing

As most of you know Dad and I have been taking a Fly Fishing class up at Davis High School for the past 6 weeks. It has been a lot of fun and we have learned much about fishing, fish, tying flies, and Cabela's. We have purchased or found all of our supplies and had a field trip last Saturday and then again this Saturday. I will try to attach pictures of both of us last week with our fish. However, this week because of the two snow storms and the below 0 temp. the water was frozen where our teacher took us so we had to try another place. With the help of two other fisherman I was able to catch two fish, but Dad had no such luck, we will go back to our original place next week, I think.

As you know Grandma Weston has been with us for the past 3 weeks. We took her home last Monday and I believe she was very happy to go. However, we had a great time while she was here. We had visits from: Kendra & David; Ann, Sam, Thomas, Matthew, & Benjamin, Jill, Craig, Erin, & Weston; Beth, Ray, Jezzie, & Jenessa; Ann, Brian & Nicole. Great bunch!!! I will try to attach some pictures.

Update

I am trying to send a blog about our kitchen first and then I will try to do other things, probably tomorrow.
I am trying to send finished pictures especially for Rebekah to see and I will include a picture of my new nails.

I hope this works, I will try and see if anyone sees this and then I will use it more.
Tricia and RJ have gone to the Bahamas so on Wednesday Dad will go down to NM and stay with grandma for a week until they get back. I haven not been left alone for about 5 years so "What will I do?"
Let me know if this works.

Bryan & JoanneW

After a wonderful Christmas with many of you here, it is interesting to start January and a new year. Bryan and I have decided to take two adult education classes. They start next week. Monday we will be doing a flyfishing class and then on Thursday we will be taking an Excel class. Dan and Luana Rogers are taking the flyfishing class with us so that should be lots of fun.

Let's see if I can even get this to work